Friday, July 02, 2004

Update on SmartCertify Certification Study

Well I finished all the course work for 70-299. I took all the unit tests. I didn't get a 100% on the first try on each unit test but I did eventually get there. I took the prep test and it took me 6 tries to get over 70%! There was material on the prep test that wasn't covered in the course work! So I thought I would check the Trandrumper test and see how I would do. After 20 questions I gave up! I had to just plain guess at over half the questions!

So I emailed and then talked with customer service. At first they thought it was something wrong with my computer. WHAT! I can't pass a test because something is wrong with my computer? Then they said that I finished it way too fast so there was no way I went through all the material. Right! I have done nothing but study for this test. I carefully went through each unit and took the unit test like I was supposed to. I'm not working so ALL my time was devoted to this. Then he says that they work hard to make sure the test material is covered in the course work. HA! I told them I wanted my money back!

But I had signed a contract. Just great. I'm eventually told that if I read the contract it says that if I fail two "official" tests within 120 days I can get my money back. So here is how it works. I have to go take a test. Fail. Wait 5 days (although Microsoft makes you wait 7 days) and fail the test again. I will send them the confirmation of my failures and they will let me out of the contract. So I have to pay the $125 to VUE, twice. Then I can get my $2000 back. What the heck is wrong with THAT picture! I said, "why can't I just give you the $250 and you let me out of the contract?" That just wouldn't do. What a bunch of idiots!

So I decided that I would take the MS Word Core test for $80. I did the course work and failed my first exam today! And that wasn't an easy task! It's hard to screw up previewing a document in MS Word!

So I'm back to studying the 70-229 book. There is definitely material in the book that wasn't online with SmartCertify.

I have a job interview on Tuesday afternoon. They want an MCSD so I signed up to take the 70-229 test on Tuesday morning. By the time I get to the interview I should be an MCSD!

DON'T USE SMARTCERTIFY!!! (unless it's free!...still read the book if you want to pass!)

About

Currently I'm working for Travis Software. I spent 15 years developing in FoxPro. I've been making the switch to the .NET world since April of 2004. I'm currently doing web development utilizing C#, SQL Server, XML, XSLT, and HTML.